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Here's an interesting dilemma:

The National Labor Relations Board's New York office delivered a stinging accusation against one of the city's -- and the nation's -- most popular retail outlets. The labor board charged that Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain, committed 30 violations of law in the process of trying to ward off union activity at four Manhattan outlets.

Activists are asking consumers to sign petitions and send e-mail messages protesting Starbucks' practices. But they may have a hard time matching the success of the campaign against Wal-Mart.

Why is that?

Do-goodism is an important component of Starbucks' brand appeal. Starbucks is regarded as one of the most progressive members of the Fortune 500. It provides health care benefits and stock options to many part-time employees. It says it is committed to paying coffee growers in impoverished companies above-market prices for the beans. And its chief executive, Howard Schultz, called for universal health care coverage long before it became popular for corporate chieftains to do so.

And the same thing is happening over at Whole Foods, whose CEO, John Mackey is rabidly anti-union.

Why? One explanation, of course, is that with each passing year, unions occupy a smaller space in our culture. In 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a mere 12 percent of employed wage and salary workers were members of unions, down from 20.1 percent in 1983. In 2006, only 7.4 percent of private-sector employees were union members. As a result, very few of the people who pop into Starbucks each day for a jolt of energy are members of unions themselves, or are related to union members.

If you aren't a union member or don't know one, why would you care about unions? It's that simple. Next time you're in a Whole Foods or Starbucks, ask the person behind the counter whether they miss being in a union. I guarantee that over 50% of them (and probably more than that) will just shrug their shoulders since they don't know any better.

As the article sums up:

Many people are willing to pay a premium for Starbucks coffee and Whole Foods vegetables in part because they swear by the products, and in part because the companies trumpet their '"good corporate citizen credentials." Whether the associates and team members who sell them $4 coffees and $7-per-pound heirloom tomatoes agree with that assessment may not matter.

And that's the dilemma...

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